Fireplace & Chimney Authority

Everything was an up-​charge. From the moment you walk into the door to the point of installation, there was no transparency whatsoever with pricing. Lead times for ordering and installing a fireplace door are 4 – 6 weeks on top of the appointment you need to have a tech come out and measure.
They are only concerned with the sale and adding on things you don’t need. Overall, this was a very bad experience. I wish I would have shopped around.

If I could I’d give the Fireplace and Chimney Authority 2 reviews.
One for their chimney cleaning — no stars.
and
a second for the sale and installation of a Mendota fireplace insert. 4 stars. 4 because they did what they were supposed to. 5 stars would require (in my opinion) doing something above and beyond what I would expect from someone who is a competent professional doing what they do everyday. They did clean up after themselves.
The reason for the fugly rating on the chimney cleaning is simple. They arrived on time. Yay… They cleaned the chimney and evaluated its continued viability. Okay… Unfortunately their equipment sucked (okay bad pun there, my bad). Specifically what I mean is that they came equipped with a $ 100 Home Depot shop vac. WTF??? The effect of that was that it took many hours of cleanup after they left to remove the layer of very fine soot deposited everywhere around that room. If I’d been paying attention and noticed the shop vac wasn’t a PROFESSIONAL HEPA unit I’d have stopped them before they started. My bad. I assumed they would well equipped and I was wrong. The shop vac had something over the exhaust (maybe a gym sock, I dunno) but it didn’t do crap on the DANGEROUS, microscopic soot particles. They could have hooked up a hose to carry the exhaust air outside and it might have saved the day. I’ll know if there’s ever a next time, since, with my new gas insert, I shouldn’t require much in the way of chimney sweeping going forward. I hope. So now YOU’RE educated and warned about a, potentially, messy snag when you get your chimney swept.
The chimney sweeping above was done preceding the replacement of our ancient gas log, with the installation of a new, state of the art, (read that as expensive) Mendota fireplace insert. There were a lot of decisions and prep work to be made in the selection process for this sucker let me tell ya (getting a new electrical outlet installed conveniently for the insert for example — Thanks to Kinetic Energy of Oak Park (these guys are the bomb) for a timely install on that.). Thankfully my wife worked her way through all that with our patient salesman, Eric Bigham. The installation process went off without any hitches and the the thing is functioning as advertised 2 weeks into its tenure in our home. The room is very comfortable now with no drafts or cold spots. Can’t wait to see our gas bill…
As noted in other reviews below there did seem to be a bit of tacking on of add-​ons. The 10% off coupon for the insert, (not the installation itself or the various parts needed — the $ 750 ventilation kit and the $ 350 to replace the old copper gas line with new black pipe (now required by code it seems) for example) relieved some of that pain, not a lot but some.
All in a decent experience, other then the clean up after the chimney cleaning. I’ll pay attention next time

I recently had a linear fireplace installed by Fireplace & Chimney Authority. My salesman Joe did an awesome job of walking be thorough the process and assisting me in my selection. The installation was done In a timely and professional manner. Job well done!

Very disappointed with this business. I went in to the store originally because we were looking at installing two fireplaces, one with vent-​free gas logs and the other the Dimplex Opti-​Myst. When I arrived at the showroom to see the Opti-​Myst in person I had to ask repeatedly for be shown the specific unit in question, for it to be turned on, etc. I work in sales, so I realize I have a higher standard for customer service but it was a very frustrating experience.
Joe came out to the house and a few days later I received my quotes for the two fireplaces. Everything looked good despite a couple errors in the quotes which needed to be adjusted, but I was ready to move forward.
At this point I emailed to discuss dates to start work and NEVER HEARD BACK FROM ANYONE. I called and emailed several times but NEVER received a reply. This is for a job that was quoted at $ 11,000 altogether. Needless to say I am very disappointed and will be taking my money to a business that actually wants it.